Pedro Pascal is warming up

Well, I guess here is one middle-aged heartthrob, though I don’t think we really talk about Pedro Pascal in those terms, but he is fifty-one now. He has that certain timelessness that comes almost exclusively for men who don’t get famous until their thirties. Like Mark Ruffalo has looked forty-two for his entire career, and like Pedro, he became famous in his thirties. Then there is Seth Rogen, who was famous from his very early twenties but has also looked forty-two for his entire career. Some men age like fine wine and some men age like a glass of water: unchanging.

Anyway, Pedro was in London yesterday along with Sigourney Weaver and Jon Favreau, promoting The Mandalorian and Grogu. He looks predictably handsome.

Sigourney, meanwhile, rocked sci-fi vibes with a faux-hawk and leather. This outfit is like Hudson Williams’ from the Met Gala, I need the pants to have less volume. The pants and the coat each having this much volume is too much.

There is some panic happening because the box-office tracking for Mandalorian is “only” $80 million for the four-day Memorial weekend frame. Yes, this is obviously lower than the nine-digit opening weekends of Star Wars movies in the 2010s, but 1) this a TV show bumping up to movies, something audiences will probably hesitate to pay for, and 2) the sequel trilogy and Solo ran Star Wars’ cache into the ground.

If Mando opens with $80 million and, more importantly, gets good reviews/word of mouth, that would be a win for Lucasfilm at this point. They need to rebuild their cinematic reputation and get a little trust back from audiences before next summer’s Starfighter with Ryan Gosling. By virtue of Ryan Gosling now (finally) being seen as a bankable star, there will be very high expectations with that film.

But Pedro Pascal, as beloved as he is and as well regarded as he is as an actor, isn’t considered a bankable star. His biggest film role to date is in Fantastic Four: First Steps, which is an ensemble film centered on some of Marvel’s most popular characters. If he could replicate something like that success ($521 million worldwide) with Mando, it would be a huge win for him. (Notably, some tracking reports put Mando in the $90-100 million range for opening weekend, but Disney’s internal reporting is in line with the $80M estimate, and their algorithm is excellent.)

I’ve never gotten the impression Pedro Pascal is trying to be a huge movie star, not the way Chris Hemsworth and Chris Pratt obviously want(ed) it, or the way Timothee Chalamet sets out to make big, broadly popular films. Pedro seems like he just kinda goes where the work is. So for that reason, I’m not really calling this a movie star test. If it doesn’t work out, I don’t think it will be that much skin off Pedro’s nose. But if it does, hey, Pedro Pascal, Movie Star, has a nice ring.